1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a snowmobile.
2. Description of the Related Art
Snowmobiles for running on snow are conventionally known. A snowmobile includes a pair of left and right skis disposed at the front bottom of the vehicle body, and steering handlebars for steering the skis. The steering handlebars and the skis are coupled via a power transmission mechanism including a link mechanism and so forth.
In recent years, proposals have been made to provide a power steering device to the power transmission mechanism in order to reduce the force required to steer the skis. U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,988 B2 discloses a snowmobile in which a power steering device is mounted at the lower end of a handlebar column for supporting steering handlebars. In this snowmobile, the power transmission mechanism includes a handle column as a rotary shaft, a link rod for longitudinal movement, a power transmission shaft as a rotary shaft, and a tie rod for longitudinal movement, in this order from the steering handlebars to the skis.
In the snowmobile disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,184, the power transmission mechanism is made up of a rotary shaft such as a steering column and a connecting rod that is longitudinally expandable and contractable, and a power steering device including a hydraulic cylinder is mounted to the connecting rod.
In the snowmobile disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,096,988 B2, the power steering device is provided at the lower end of the handle column so that a relatively large force supplied by the power steering device is transmitted to the skis via the link rod, the power transmission shaft and the tie rod. Therefore, the link rod, the power transmission shaft and so forth require a high degree of rigidity.
In the snowmobile disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,826,184, the power steering device includes a hydraulic cylinder mounted to the connecting rod that is longitudinally expandable and contractable. Therefore, the total length of the power steering device and the connecting rod is large, which increases the size of the power transmission mechanism.